UPDATE 1-North Korea Sentences American to 15 Years Hard Labour

SEOUL, May 2 (Reuters) - North Korea's Supreme Court
sentenced U.S. citizen Kenneth Bae to 15 years hard labour on
Thursday for committing crimes against the North, according to
state news agency KCNA.

The ruling for the unspecified crimes came after two months
of tensions between Pyongyang and Washington that saw the
isolated and impoverished state threaten nuclear war with the
United States and South Korea.

KCNA said the trial for a man it named as Pae Jun-ho, a
Korean rendering of Bae's name, was held on April 30.

Bae, 44, was in a group of five tourists who visited the
northeastern North Korean city of Rajin in November and has been
held by police since then.

According to North Korean law, the punishment for hostile
acts against the state is between five and 10 years of hard
labour.

His 15 year sentence appears to be heftier than those handed
down to other Americans detained in Pyongyang for crimes against
the state.
(Reporting by Ju-min Park and Christine Kim; Editing by Raju
Gopalakrishnan)